Re-Covered Books: ‘Odyssey’

It’s been a little while since the last Re-Covered Books contest, so hopefully you’ve had some time to rest up and are ready to get your hands dirty. This month’s book is the Odyssey by Homer, the Greek epic poem which tells the tell of Odysseus and his long journey home after the fall of Greece. I remember reading the Odyssey when I was freshman in high school and I loved all the crazy characters and amazing imagery that the book contained. You’ve got Gods, you’ve got Cyclopes, the Lotus-Eaters, Sirens, the witch-goddess Circes, the six-headed monster Scylla, the Trojan Horse and so much more. Since there’s so much great, visual content I figured this should be plenty of food for though (or creativity) and everyone could find something to inspire you.

It’s also worth mentioning that there really aren’t any good covers for the book, as is evidenced by this Google search. So doing something really cool will definitely make your work stand out. My suggestion is to stay away from the obvious clichés of making it look like a Grecian urn or something similar. Be creative and think outside the box. Make a design that is both timeless and appealing to a broad audience.

As usual the winner will receive a $100 Amazon gift card. But, you must follow the extremely simple rules below the be eligible:

• Please save your images as JPGs no larger than 800px wide at 72 DPI, there no height restrictions (within reason). Feel free to play with the dimensions and have fun with what you make. Making a front and back cover with certainly help your chances but is not required.

• Send all entries to contest@thefoxisblack.com with the subject “Re-Covered Books: Odyssey“. Just cut and paste what I wrote there, it’s super easy and it helps me keep track of entries.

• All entries are due April 15, 2011 by Midnight, PST.

If there are any other questions feel free to leave them in the comments. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with and be sure to tell the creative people in your life to participate. Good luck!

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WRITTEN BY

Bobby Solomon

The founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Fox Is Black. He currently lives in Los Angeles where he works as a creative director pertaining to websites, apps, and other beautiful things. Eat, drink, design.

26 Comments →Re-Covered Books: ‘Odyssey’

Awesome! I’ve been wanting to do some illustration about Greek mythology for months now, this is the perfect excuse!

Lily March 22, 2011 at 9:18 PM

Hooray! I love looking at all the entries! The funny thing is that all the books you’ve chosen are all books I was assigned to read in High School. I’m sure reading them would have been more fun if they had some of the covers I’ve seen from your contests. Excited to see the results!

Ashley March 23, 2011 at 12:10 AM

Sounds fun! Can’t wait to see the entries!
(On a picky grammatical note, “thoughts” in the post is misspelled, and it should be “there” not “their”!)

Rex March 23, 2011 at 12:05 PM

How do I transfer something I paint to a JPG?
I’m confused on that whole thing.

Holy biscuits, Matt Roeser—that graphic is the bomb. I like the lighter script for ‘The’ more than I do the heavier one for ‘Homer’, but that’s small potatoes.

Rebecca April 5, 2011 at 1:35 PM

I truly love the Blue 5th entry, and even though the 9th is a bit cartoonish it might work for the children’s version of the Odyssey, and the 12 one really caught my eye and portrays the whole book for me.

Also i think you should do Fahrenheit t 451 for the next Re-covered Book. It is a wonderful, short novel that hasn’t had the chance for a great cover yet.

I’d love to see Jack Cunningham’s published as a serial, any excuse to see more interpretations on the theme.

Amanda April 8, 2011 at 4:34 PM

@Rebecca~ Agreed. I think Fahrenheit 451 is a classic and should definitely have a place somewhere in these shenanigans. Ray Bradbury was a writer for the old Twilight Zone show for Christ’s sake! :-D The man is a respected name to all categories of writing, plus, that book totally changed my life in the seventh grade. (veto Bradbury if you must, I’ll keep quiet if I’m starting to sound too frank. xD )

As for this contest, I’m rooting for DanCodyre’s entry. It was attractive to the eye and stood out in my mind above all the others. It was very elegant, yet simple in not trying to fill the whole page. It just had detail in the areas that mattered. I like. :^

Alisa April 12, 2011 at 5:01 AM

Just found this via a moo.com tweet & I can’t resist – it looks like fun!